We threw down a cool rug, brought in some vibey lamps and busted out the upright bass….it was freakin’ cool! Top that off with great players and some killer vocals….the set was choc-full of musical moments.

It was interesting and challenging to play without a percussion instrument, but it forced us to lean into the uniqueness of each instrument in the band. The upright bass didn’t have electronic pick-ups so we had to mic it. I think if we’d had percussion it would have overpowered the mic, so that was a bit unexpected good fortune.

As if it wasn’t enough to just lead worship with this fun band set-up, the highlight of the morning was a thematic song we did featuring one of our stellar singers. So this would be the perfect time for me to introduce you to Helene Immel. She’s a singer/songwriter, artist and worshipper of Jesus. Do yourself a favor and get to know her music.

Mighty To Save | Hillsong United
How He Loves | Jesus Culture
Amazed | Desperation Band (feat. Pam Allen)
Aftermath | Hillsong United (feat. Helene Immel)

Now…a couple little treats for ya…

Here is our version of How He Loves.

Here is the video of Helene singing Aftermath…you are welcome!

What did you think of the songs/performance?
leave a comment below… 

We opened with one song and then went straight to the teaching this week. Then we worshipped as a response to the teaching and took communion. It was very very cool. I’m thinking we’ll look at this format more frequently in the future.

Glory To God Forever | Fee
Be Thou My Vision | Andy Allen (original arrangement | unreleased)
Kingdom Come | Elevation Worship
Your Love Never Fails | Jesus Culture
The Stand | Hillsong United

And for the record, the band freakin’ killed it!

There are many lessons I’m learning as the journey continues to help start a new church here in North San Diego County. This was our 11th Sunday meeting weekly. We find ourselves working hard to establish routine…and then working equally as hard to make sure routine does not dictate predictability and a lack of creativity in our worship expression.

I think a significant part of the challenge is that no one on our lead team is working full-time for The Station Church. The upside of this is that there is an incredible commitment being demonstrated by a group of volunteers who simply believe in this mission to reach people in our community with the love of God. Building a team of people with a shared vision always takes time…especially when everyone is busy making a living in the real world.

It’s relatively simple to get lost in the details of scheduling volunteers, planning the weekly set-list and having to focus on getting loaded-in and set-up in the short time allotted each Sunday morning. This week I was glad to be reminded again WHY I’m doing this. When Josh invited people to make a decision to commit their lives to Christ and 2 people responded…I was affected by the joy of God’s mercy, His salvation and the peace that is here for us when we lean into His love.

I’m also incredibly thankful for a growing community of talented creatives, musicians and singers. They prepare and show up each week with hearts ready to engage with God. It’s just incredibly fun to see our weekly Worship Experience take shape.

Our Great God | Casey Darnell
Our God | Chris Tomlin
Forever Reign | One Sonic Society
Go | Hillsong United

I’ve heard that San Diego County is one of the top 5 places in our country where people choose not to be part of a church. I don’t advocate just attending church for the sake of attending church…it’s bigger than that for me. It’s part of my faith expression. There’s community and relationship in a church family…sometimes it’s great and sometimes it can be rough…but that’s real life and that’s the real world we all live in. It’s also an opportunity for us to invite friends to a place where we can talk about God together. It’s not perfect…but it can be a place where we’re honest about how life and God intersect.

This is why I’m stoked to see people showing up and checking out The Station. We had 60 people in our main Worship Experience and 16 in Kids Station this week. We’re becoming a growing community of people living life alongside of each other. Friendships and relationships are being formed and I can’t help but celebrate the fact that 32 people have decided to follow Christ over the past 11 weeks. THAT IS AWESOME!!!

So, I’m curious…

Why do you go to church? Why don’t you go to church? Be honest!
leave a comment below…

I had the privilege of attending and being asked to lead worship at the Worship Leaders Together Conference in Mission Viejo. The conference was hosted by Holland Davis and his friends in South Orange County. Their heart was for local churches to support and encourage other local churches in the arena of music and worship ministry.

Originally I planned to just attend the event so I could refresh personally and possibly connect with other regional people involved in worship. Being asked to participate was definitely an honor.

The day opened up with an inspiring teaching from Holland on maintaining our friendship with God. This was followed up by a time of worship by Gary Rea and his band. Then there was a panel of Sr. Pastors who answered questions about their perspective on worship in their churches and the relationship they have with worship leaders.

Following a quick break there were two breakout workshop sessions on practical matters for worship leaders, musicians and tech teams. I then led a short worship set and was part of a panel of worship leaders talking about our perspectives on different aspects of worship ministry. It was very cool to share from our experience and be an encouragement to other leaders at the conference.

One Thing Remains | Jesus Culture
Kingdom Come | Elevation Worship
Forever Reign | One Sonic Society
Amazed | Desperation Band 

Although it was a short event (9am – 12:30pm) there was a lot of great content covered and some time to sink into worship and connect with God. I’m so thankful for the new friendships that began today and for people like this who are willing to take time and energy to serve local and regional people in ministry.

Are there local worship conferences in your region?
I would love to hear about them.
leave a comment below…

Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me

This is, hands down, one of the best books I’ve ever read!

I had seen some buzz online about this book and it had piqued my interest. Then I had the privilege of hearing Ian speak at a conference I attended in January. That did it…I started reading that night.

The stories he tells of his life are captivating…the stuff of movies really. The way he turns those stories inside out to chronicle a journey of faith that I found entirely relatable is profound…at the very least. But the writing…holy crap…the writing is nothing short of incredible!

Rarely have I seen an author with such command of language. Never have I seen an author with such a command of language use it to speak in a way that is so accessible and vulnerable and real. It’s just simply amazing.

This book is absolutely one of my all-time favorites. I will for sure read it again once my wife returns our copy to me.

YOU NEED TO BUY THIS BOOK AND READ IT TODAY!

Get it on Amazon.com by clicking here.

I’m already planning to read his other book, Chasing Francis | A Pilgrim’s Tale. Be watching for that review.

Publishers Info:
At the age of sixteen, Ian Morgan Cron was told by his mother that his father, a motion picture executive, also worked for the CIA in Europe. This astonishing revelation, coupled with his father’s dark struggles with alcoholism, upended the world of a boy struggling to become a man. Decades later, as he faces his own personal demons, Ian realizes the only way to find peace is to voyage back through a childhood marked by extremes–privilege and hardship, violence and tenderness, truth and deceit–that he’s spent years trying to forget. In this surprisingly funny and forgiving memoir, Ian reminds us that no matter how different the pieces may be, in the end we are all cut from the same cloth, stitched by faith into an exquisite quilt of grace.

Have you read this book or heard Ian speak?
leave a comment below… 

We’re also wanting to stay very intentional about creating a unique Worship Experience every Sunday. It’s easy to default into an expected flow and order of things. On one hand it is nice to have a basic plan to launch from, but we definitely want to keep finding new ways to connect with people and create meaningful moments where people can experience the love of God.

The entrepreneurial part of me is absolutely loving the discovery of a new church culture along with the opportunity to help define the worship expression we have as a group.

Our numbers were down some this week. There were 45 people in the main venue and 16 in the Kids Station. There are still a solid percentage of first time visitors coming each week. We have a developing core of regular attenders, but at this point in our journey it’s not consistent from week to week.

Musically we had a great week. The band was incredibly solid and that helps create a distraction-free Worship Experience that is a joy to lead.

Our Great God | Casey Darnell
One Thing Remains | Jesus Culture
Always | One Sonic Society
From The Inside Out | Hillsong United

I’m very thankful for a growing community of creative people who are helping each week as we meet to worship Jesus and talk about God’s love with the people who are coming out to The Station Church.

Our set design team did a great job putting together a new concept for the stage and worked with the lighting crew to enhance the vibe in our Worship Experience. It turned out very cool.

We had 50 people in our main Worship Experience and 17 in Kids Station. We also had a free VIP lunch to close out the day. It was a ton of fun to see so many people hanging out together and building new relationships. So very cool!

Our band was a 4 piece this week and i really liked it. We still used enhancement tracks to fill out the sonic spectrum, but there was a great rock energy with a simple 4 piece arrangement.

With Us | Hillsong
Stronger | Hillsong Live
All Things New | Elevation Worship
Search My Heart | Hillsong United

How was your Post-Easter Sunday?
Leave a comment below… 

We had experienced several technical challenges with the videos we’d planned to show, so our tech crew was scrambling right up to the last minute to get things working so we would have media projected correctly. It all came together as we started…great work team!

There was an energy of expectation in the room as we began. I love it when there is a sense that people have showed up to really connect with each other and God. There was a feeling of celebration and reverence during our worship set that was entirely moving.

Josh spoke about the life of Jesus and who He is. The Jesus of the Bible is the same Jesus that we can know personally today. At the close of his teaching, he gave people an opportunity to make a decision to follow Christ. 2 people committed their hearts to Jesus…what an incredible day to mark a new relationship with God!

Over the past 8 weeks we have been humbled to see 30 people make decisions to follow Jesus!! YES!! It’s amazing to witness God transforming hearts as we’re giving our lives to this work.

We closed out the day with a feature song called Christ Is Risen. Inspired by a piece we’d seen online, we integrated a powerful Spoken Word piece in the middle of the song. It really turned out to be a profound moment in our Easter celebration.

Overall, we had 89 people in our main Worship Experience and 17 in Kids Station for a total 106. It continues to be an exciting journey as we see new people joining us every week and God impacting the lives and hearts of those attending.

My Savior Lives | New Life Worship
Mighty To Save | Hillsong United
Jesus Paid It All | Kristian Stanfill
Christ Is Risen | Andy Frank

How was your Easter? What was your experience this year?
Leave a comment below…

This week we went more with an ‘unplugged’ format. Still plugged-in but with a more acoustic-ish feel. I led from keys which was fun for me because I almost always lead from guitar.

I really need to say how fortunate I am to be surrounded by really great musicians and vocalists at this point in our journey as a start-up church. I’ve worked with hundreds of churches over the years and I can honestly say that the players we have at The Station Church are incredible. I’m already at the point where I can comfortably hand off lead to a couple other vocalists and know that they’re going to knock it out of the park.

So…that’s what I did this week. We had a 4 song set and I only led two of them vocally. It was very, very cool.

We had 65 people in our main Worship Experience and 15 in the Kids Station for a total of 80 people on campus. There are still new people coming every week so we don’t necessarily have a ‘group’ of people attending regularly each week. I’m sure that will become more evident over time, but we’re very excited to continually meet new people coming to worship with us.

The stat with eternal significance is what pumps me up…2 people made decisions to follow Christ! This will never get old…I love it!

Salvation Is Here | Hillsong Chapel
Hosanna | Hillsong United
Awakening | Chris Tomlin
Revelation Song | Gateway Worship

Now we are planning and working toward our Easter gathering next week. About 25 of us went out on Saturday to hand out flyers about Easter and invite families to come to our free Easter Egg Hunt. If you’re in the North San Diego County area next weekend, please join us…it’s going to be a party!

Josh talked this week about how we were made for this moment. God has made each of us with a unique gifting. Within our individual design we can live out who we were destined to be. It was a challenge for everyone to lean into their personal life calling from God.

Our overall attendance was down this week at 80, with 65 people in the main worship experience and 15 at The Kids Station. I’m discovering that consistency in numbers is not something we’ll probably see for a while as a new church start-up.

The worship set went great. Even with several new players in each week’s configuration, the band is really solid and these folks are worshiping as a team. Our technical set-up and run-thru is getting smoother as well.

It’s an interesting journey to help define the worship culture of a new church. I’m finding that it’s more ‘uncovering‘ than ‘defining‘ the unique worship culture with the people that are coming every week. Our worship expression as a church is evolving and developing. It will be for some time. I’m finding my challenge is to be at peace with the unknown and to embrace (and gently lead) this complex assortment of people who are gathering here to worship.

Kingdom Come | Elevation Worship
Our God | Chris Tomlin
Forever Reign | One Sonic Society
All Things New | Elevation Worship

How would you define the “worship culture” at your church?
Leave a comment below…